Subjects: The Prime Minister’s Covid Inquiry cop-out; the Prime Minister’s protection racket for Labor premiers; Josh Frydenberg; Rupert Murdoch.
E&OE
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Poor old Jim. Every time he’s got some positive news to report, the Prime Minister stuffs it up for him.
The Opposition Leader Peter Dutton joins us now. Anything you want to say to Jim? Congratulations on the surplus?
PETER DUTTON:
I have sympathy for Jim. I mean, he wanted to come on and talk about his surplus and he’s having to defend this crazy decision by the Prime Minister.
So, Josh Frydenberg, well done on the surplus. This is like the bloke who buys business, right?…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Josh Frydenberg.
PETER DUTTON:
…This is like the bloke who buys the good business that’s running at a profit, it runs at a profit for two years and then they’re forecasting deficits for 40 years, when they’re actually in charge. So, it’s good that we’re in surplus, it’s good for the country, but I just think the Government is lurching from one disaster to the next at the moment.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Poor old Josh Frydenberg, I mean, he’s lurched into Goldman Sachs now, on the big paydays.
PETER DUTTON:
He should be okay.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
He should be all right.
What difference – I want to ask this to play devil’s advocate here. I mean, I’ve rarely seen a story where all the major papers, all the major editors, in this country are on board, and they’ve been damning on this decision not to launch a Royal Commission. But what difference would a Royal Commission make as opposed to the other three inquiries?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Karl, firstly, it would see the Prime Minister honour his promise that he made to the Australian public about having a proper inquiry, and secondly, it has powers that a normal inquiry don’t have, and it also has objectivity and it’s not biased – it will present the facts and it’ll look at – look, this was, I mean people sort of forget now, but a lot of people are scarred still from COVID. This was the biggest health event, probably the biggest disruption to our lives since the Second World War, and if there’s a pandemic in five or ten or 25 years time, we should be learning the lessons of what happened. There’s no politics in that, and that means that you should look at both the state decisions and the Commonwealth decisions.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
I can’t fathom how the Prime Minister’s decided this. I mean, what do you put it down to?
PETER DUTTON:
Obviously the states need to agree, so I’d say Daniel Andrews and Annastacia Palaszczuk have said to the Prime Minister, ‘bugger off, we’re not going to allow you to look at the decisions we’ve made’, and I think the Prime Minister should have exerted his authority and stepped up, instead he hasn’t. And I think he just…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Careful what you wish for a little bit, Pete! Scomo – how does he come out of this? I mean, after all, he was pretty much a lame duck when the Premiers were running rampant.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, you had National Cabinet obviously, Karl. So, I think Scott Morrison at the time was trying to get a consensus position at a war-like period, and that’s admirable. The JobKeeper payments kept a lot of small businesses alive, but there’ll be decisions that we made that were good and bad and both at a state and federal level. Let’s put all of that under the microscope.
Instead, I think what’s really made the editors angry, to your point – and it goes across the line newspapers, across Murdoch newspapers, etc. – is that when the PM stood up yesterday, it was just utterly disingenuous, as Phil Coorey said in The Fin this morning. It wasn’t a legitimate or credible argument that he was putting, and I think that’s what’s made Australians really angry.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Phil didn’t miss, and neither did The Sydney Morning Herald editorial – it was blistering this morning.
Rupert Murdoch – you mentioned Rupert, he certainly built an awful lot, didn’t he, from Adelaide? You’ve been sucking up to News Limited editors for years now. Will that continue under Lachlan?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’m under a dark cloud every time I come here to Channel Nine, but I’m happy to be here with you this morning.
Look, I think, I mean, Rupert, I suspect, is telling his friends that he wanted to go when he’d seen everything. He’s obviously still in good health, he’s got a new girlfriend. But I’d say after last January, he said to his friends, you know, ‘I’ve seen everything: I saw Karl at Noosa, I’ve seen it all, I can retire’, right? So I think you’ve got a lot on your shoulders here.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
I can’t be blamed for Rupert Murdoch retiring.
PETER DUTTON:
You should be in the will because you have given more copy to Murdoch press than most other Australians. You were front page…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Righto, righto. That’s enough!
PETER DUTTON:
Righto.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Good on you, Pete. Thanks for that.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks mate.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
What a stitch up!
[ends]